Best and Worst Schemes

Villains are sometimes the best part of soaps, what are some of everyone's favorite schemes or scams that were pulled on soaps and some of the ones that made absolutely no sense/were concocted horribly?

One of my favorites from DAYS is Vivian burying Carly alive.

One of the worst -- for a myriad of reasons -- was that entire period on Y&R where Adam was gaslighting Ashley. It was really just a mess, though I liked the initial stuff with him faking blindness and driving her crazy. Then it just became overblown and offensive.

I guess my favorite would be Alex's revenge plans against Roger and Mindy on GL.

Eastenders - I would also have to include the "three witches" (Chrissie, Zoe, Sam) and their plan to break Den Watts, by turning his beloved daughter Sharon against him. Not only was this a powerful moment, but the ugly consequences (he began choking Chrissie, Zoe hit him over the head, then after Zoe and Sam fled, Chrissie gave him the killing blow, letting Zoe believe she'd done it, then they buried his body in the basement of the Queen Vic) led to nearly a year of fantastic storytelling.

GH - I really liked the short story where Bobbie and Luke were working to get into on Stefan (Luke's enemy and Bobbie's husband, whom she realized was planning to dump her and had just married her to get revenge on Luke). The payoff, when Stefan furiously busted Bobbie and they had a big fight and she was left with nothing, was the big highlight of GH that year.

Worst?

The scheme on GL where Roger wanted to drug young wife Dinah so he could get her money. The tone of this story was all wrong, very ugly, taking Roger to a much darker place than he needed to be, made even worse when Dinah and his son Hart turned the tables by drugging him, gaslighting him, and accidentally giving him electroshock therapy. It was a tasteless story which nearly got GL canceled.

I thought on GH, Bobbie's scheme against Damian after he used her for sex was very OTT and dark (she led him to a sewer or something, left him in flood waters, he broke his back) and was out of character for her. I have no idea who came up with this as an ending.

Villains are sometimes the best part of soaps, what are some of everyone's favorite schemes or scams that were pulled on soaps and some of the ones that made absolutely no sense/were concocted horribly?

One of my favorites from DAYS is Vivian burying Carly alive.

One of the worst -- for a myriad of reasons -- was that entire period on Y&R where Adam was gaslighting Ashley. It was really just a mess, though I liked the initial stuff with him faking blindness and driving her crazy. Then it just became overblown and offensive.

I actually loved Adam's schemes against Ashley. I thought that Eileen Davidson did great work during that storyline and I was tuning in everyday to see how she would react to what Adam was doing.

I also of course loved all of Sami's classic schemes. Miss those days!

BestOn GH, I liked when Bert Ramsey had to be convinced that Duke Lavery had been killed. A bunch of people were in on it, Tony Jones applied his death makeup, Yank examined him, Olin helped hide him out, Robert, Anna and Frisco all knew. They were all putting on a show for Bert. Kind of silly but it was the 80s so it was fun.

OLTL - the first time Asa faked his death and watched his family's reactions via Brad Vernon. That gimmick hadn't been played to death (pardon the pun) yet.

OLTL - Clint trying to get Viki to emerge from Niki Smith by pretending to succumb to Tina

WorstOLTL - Tess locking Natalie and Jared in the sealed room....so much of Tess and her behavior was little more than Viki/Dorian history being repeated. It was like they couldn't come up with anything original so they just rehashed Viki's stories and gave them to Jess/Tess.

Best & Worst At The Same TimeGH - Kevin & Mac masquerading as women to debunk Madame Maia. They were so obviously men in drag that Lucy (and just about everybody else) had to be dumbed down not to see it but it was funny watching the guys going through the whole process of learning to impersonate women. Hell, I liked Kevin & Mac together far more than I did them with their respective girlfriends.

Honorable mention: I always found it funny that the first famous Luke and Laura on the run story had Laura sporting a dark wig yet Luke with his distinctive blond afro wore no disguise whatsoever. No wonder Hutch played them so easily.

AMC: Adam fakes his death to test Erica's loyalty to him and their marriage but ends up kidnapped by Billy Clyde and his girlfriend Jewell, forced to hide out in their trailer park. Meanwhile, Erica is sexing Mike Roy up in the Chandler mansion.

My all-time favorite scheme was on ATWT. Lisa had nearly ruined John Dixon's career by launching a very public malpractice suit against him. After he was cleared, John seemed to have forgiven Lisa, and even began courting her. Everyone was happy to see the feud ended, and expected wedding bells, except Lucinda, who knew something wasn't quite right. At their huge engagement party, John was a no-show, but sent a videotape broadcast on a giant screen, where he verbally decimated his fiancee, calling her the stupidest, vainest woman he'd ever met. She was crushed, and John had his revenge.

Less than stellar:
Erica kidnapping Bianca and posing as a diner waitress named Sally. OK, wouldn't people recognize her as Erica Kane? Plus, I think that was during the '88 writer's strike and while I've only seen bits and pieces of the story, there seems to be lots of holes in it. And that Steven Andrews guy -- while I guess was the point -- was too creepy.